Merriwyn: If what you love about Pratchett is the combination of humour and the wealth of cultural and intertextual references then Jasper Fforde should be right up your street. Set in an alternate world, The Eyre Affair is funny and clever, referencing swathes of western literature and literary history, and exploring complex and interesting ideas in the best tradition of humourous fantasy.… (more)

ChillnND: I'm a big fan of Terry Pratchett style comedy fantasy and I found Barking Mad to be not dissimilar in its level of wit and humor. Barking has maybe slightly less social commentary than a Pratchett novel but aims a bit more at good-natured parody of Agatha Christie's and similarly styled mysteries. I looked forward to every minute of reading it and hope the author gives us some more Spiffington mysteries.… (more)

Hogfather is the twentieth book in the Discworld series, and the fourth following Death. However, I think it’s one you can probably pick up even if you’ve read none of the others.

In Hogfather, Pratchett satirizes the commercial and secular phenomena of Christmas – namely Santa Claus, who’s Discworld equivalent is the Hogfather, a merry gift giver who arrives on the longest night of the year.

Unfortunately, the Auditors of reality are out to destroy the Hogfather as part of their war on the messiness of life. To the rescue comes Discworld’s Death, who must keep the Hogfather’s place open by dressing up in a fake beard and delivering presents to children everywhere. Meanwhile, his granddaughter Susan must go to the source of the matter and defeat the assassin Teatime hired by the auditors.

Hogfather is undoubtedly the best Christmas themed book I’ve ever read. It’s hilarious and insightful, and like all the best Discworld books, it has a lot going on beneath the surface.

“In fact the Guild, he liked to think, practiced the ultimate democracy. You didn’t need intelligence, social position, beauty or charm to hire it. You just needed money which, unlike the other stuff, was available to everyone. Except for the poor, of course, but there was no helping some people.”

In this case, I noticed some commentary on how the idea of Christmas does not meet up with the reality, especially for families without the money for the huge expensive gifts. For a book nominally about Christmas, there was actually a number of times Terry Pratchett addressed class and economic inequality.

“BE HAPPY WITH WHAT YOU’VE GOT, IS THAT THE IDEA?

“That’s about the size of it, master. A good god line, that. Don’t give ’em too much and tell ’em to be happy with it. Jam tomorrow, see.”

THIS IS WRONG. Death hesitated. I MEAN…IT’S RIGHT TO BE HAPPY WITH WHAT YOU’VE GOT. BUT YOU’VE GOT TO HAVE SOMETHING TO BE HAPPY ABOUT HAVING. THERE’S NO POINT IN BEING HAPPY ABOUT HAVING NOTHING.”

The other important idea running throughout Hogfather was how the ability to believe and fantasize is what makes us human. There’s a particularly powerful segment near the end that spells out the value of stories and fantasy, but I’ll leave that for you to discover on your own.

“I’m just saying man is naturally a mythopoeic creature.”“What’s that mean?” said the Senior Wrangler.“Means we make things up as we go along,” said the Dean, not looking up.”

The technical elements are all excellent. As always, Pratchett succeeds in creating a cast of likable and quirky characters that nevertheless have a sense of weight and reality to them. Death and Susan are both favorites of mine, Death for his desire to understand humanity and Susan for her insistence on logic and good sense.

Hogfather has a bunch of different threads and plots winding throughout it, from Death to Susan to the wizards at the Unseen University to one off scenes that illustrate a piece of the larger story. Despite this, Hogfather never feels fractured or haphazard and ties together wonderfully. It’s much more cohesive than some of the early Discworld novels.

I recommend Hogfather to.. well, practically everyone. Even if you’re not familiar with Christmas or the ideas surrounding it, there’s enough else going on to make Hogfather well worth reading.

I actually liked thinking about some of the ideas in this one. For example: "The world is so full of sharp bends that if (parents) didn't put a few twists in you, you wouldn't stand a chance of fitting in." And: "Humans need fantasy to human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.... You have to start out learning the little lies [eg Tooth Fairies, as practice for the big ones like}... Justice. Mercy. Duty. That sort of thing.... {You have}... the most amazing talent."

(Better if you read the whole passage, p. 336 my edition. Better still if you read the whole book.) ( )

It was the night before Hogswatch. All through the house... one creature stirred. It was the mouse.

Who would want to hurt the Hogfather? One of Discworld's most beloved icons! And yet the worst has happened. It has left a whole lot of belief lying around and the world is starting to unravel at an alarming rate. Drastic measures must be taken. It's up to Death and his granddaughter Susan to figure this mess out.

Hogfather is the 20th Discworld book and the 4th in the Death series. It's Christmas, Discworld style. In true Pratchett form it is also about a lot more than just the holiday times. This book explores the nature of belief and what it is to believe. Belief is part of what makes us human. It is not a story about needing to believe because it's the holidays but more how humans choose to believe to make sense of the world, how that belief is woven into the fabric of our existence. How it allows us to define abstract concepts like justice, mercy, duty. Some of the conversations between Death and Susan at the end of the book are pretty deep.

That said, the book is hilarious! Daft old wizards, the thinking machine Hex, the Tooth Fairy, Death, Death of Rats, Susan - such an awesome cast of characters! Death filling in for the Hogfather is both fascinating and laugh out loud funny. Susan has become another of my favorite Discworld characters. And she sure wields a mean poker. ( )

OK, Terry Pratchett is clever as hell. And I laughed out loud several times while reading this book. But man, I couldn't wait for it to end. The action is a mess and there are too many characters all going about their miscellaneous business, without nearly enough clues (unless I slept through them) as to how it all pulls together. Some of the characters were brilliant, but they need to be spread out a little. By the time I reached the end of all that relentless cleverness, I felt a little like the Oh god of Hangovers myself. Or maybe the Toothache Fairy. Too much, Terry, too much.

She'd become a governess. It was one of the few jobs a known lady could do. And she'd taken to it well. She'd sworn that if she did indeed ever find herself dancing on rooftops with chimney sweeps she'd beat herself to death with her own umbrella.

Time stopped.

But duration continued.

Sometimes, somewhere, somehow, the numbers on the clock did not count.

What could more genuinely embody the spirit of Christmas (or Hogswatch, on the Discworld) than a Terry Pratchett book about the holiday season? Every secular Christmas tradition is included. But as this is the 21st Discworld novel, there are some unusual twists.

This year the Auditors, who want people to stop believing in things that aren't real, have hired an assassin to eliminate the Hogfather. (You know him: red robe, white beard, says, "Ho, ho, ho!") Their evil plot will destroy the Discworld unless someone covers for him. So someone does. Well, at least Death tries. He wears the costume and rides the sleigh drawn by four jolly pigs: Gouger, Tusker, Rooter, and Snouter. He even comes down chimneys. But as fans of other Pratchett stories about Death (Mort, Reaper Man, and Soul Music) know, he takes things literally. He gives children whatever they wish for and appears in person at Crumley's in The Maul.

Fans will welcome back Susan, Death of Rats (the Grim Squeaker), Albert, and the wizardly faculty of Unseen University, and revel in new personalities like Bilious, the "oh god of Hangovers." But you needn't have read Pratchett before to laugh uproariously and think seriously about the meanings of Christmas. --Nona Vero

As a first step in destroying humanity, evil men in Discworld try to undermine belief in Hogfather by abducting him. The plot is ruined by Death who takes Hogfather's place in his sleigh drawn by pigs. Part parody of Christmas, part meditation on the role of faith.… (more)